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			<h1>Apple and ethics</h1>
			<p>Written in <span title="Ethics and Social Responsibility">PHIL 1404</span>, finalized on 2017-02-01</p>
		</header>
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>
	Ethics are highly subjective, not objective.
	It&apos;s true that they use basic logic, but they also use the point of view of the arguer and their value system.
	As such, two very reasonable people can come to very different (even opposing), yet equally-valid ethical conclusions.
	Several people assert that one specific ethical framework and set of values is the one and only correct one, but the fact is, we have no way of choosing one correct framework, or even one set of correct values; there must always be someone that decides which framework and values are best, but there&apos;s no absolute and correct way to choose which person or entity has the unquestionable right to assert their brand of ethics on everyone.
	Sadly, this means that you can even say that a corrupt corporation such as Apple is highly ethical, and you wouldn&apos;t be any less right than if you said that they were completely unethical.
</p>
<h2>Relevance of stock prices to ethics</h2>
<p>
	Because different people measure using different ethical frameworks and are guided by different sets of values, the question of if Apple&apos;s stock prices are relevant to if their behavior is ethical really depends on who you ask.
</p>
<p>
	One proposed ethical framework, utilitarian ethics, specifies that how your actions effect others is what matters.
	Is raising your stock price worth harming children by making them work in factories?
	Many would argue &quot;no&quot;.
	They&apos;d argue that stock price is not relevant to the issue of protecting children&apos;s rights.
	That said, utilitarian ethics tries to produce the most good for the most people (Seawell &amp; O&apos;Toole, n.d.), so perhaps it would be worth it after all.
	There were only eleven underage workers (Brusseau, n.d.).
	We&apos;d be making a pretty good guess to say that Apple has more than eleven shareholders, all of which benefit from Apple&apos;s actions.
	Because of this, perhaps stock price is indeed relevant even in utilitarian ethics.
	How much is a child&apos;s life worth?
	For a businessperson, a dollar value is attached even to human life (Seawell &amp; O&apos;Toole, n.d.).
</p>
<p>
	In deontological ethics, the stock price could be much less relevant.
	It is Apple&apos;s duty to encourage following of the law (these minors were being used for labor illegally) and Apple&apos;s duty to see to it that they do as little harm as feasible.
	Immanuel Kant argues that people are not only a means to an end, but an end in and of themselves (Seawell &amp; O&apos;Toole, n.d.)
	That said, it all depends on values again.
	What if it&apos;s not Apple&apos;s duty to avoid doing harm?
	What if it&apos;s not Apple&apos;s duty to encourage following of the law?
	What if it&apos;s instead Apple&apos;s duty to make as much profit as possible?
	In this case, again, Apple&apos;s stock price would be highly relevant.
</p>
<p>
	According to followers of virtue ethics, fulfilling one&apos;s primary purpose is ethical (Seawell &amp; O&apos;Toole, n.d.).
	Because the primary purpose of a business is to make as much profit for shareholders as possible (Seawell &amp; O&apos;Toole, n.d.), harming large numbers of individuals in an effort to drive profits up for a few people is often claimed to be the most ethical decision for a company.
	Corporation have to answer to the public, the government, their customers, and their employees, but they also have to answer to shareholders.
	By law, corporations are required to be loyal to their shareholders above all others (Seawell &amp; O&apos;Toole, n.d.).
	That&apos;s what a corporation is: an entity that draws money to its shareholders.
	Being good at that is the goal when virtue ethics are applied.
</p>
<p>
	In communitarian ethics, Apple&apos;s stock price would likely be very relevant.
	Depending on what communities Apple is a part of, such as the global community, the employment of illegal minors might also be relevant, but this doesn&apos;t make the stock prices irrelevant.
	Apple&apos;s internal community, which is composed of its employees, and its stockholder community, composed of people benefiting from this illegal workforce, are both relevant for any decisions that Apple has to make.
	It has also been argued that a successful business benefits society (Brusseau, n.d.), and rising stock prices are an indicator of a successful business.
</p>
<p>
	As we can see, the relevance of Apple&apos;s stock prices can only be determined once we know what ethical framework we&apos;re going to use and which values we seek to employ.
	It can be reasonably argued both that the stock prices are relevant and that they aren&apos;t.
</p>
<h2>Not enforcing workforce age laws</h2>
<p>
	It can reasonably be argued that Apple has no responsibility to enforce age laws in the workplace.
	For one thing, it&apos;s the legal authorities that are responsible for enforcing laws, not Apple.
	Apple&apos;s fulfilling it&apos;s legal responsibility by not breaking the law themselves.
	Regardless of the living conditions and working conditions of the workforce, Apple&apos;s not even employing them.
	At least, they&apos;re not employing them directly.
	Apple was buying parts from international suppliers, and it was <strong>*these suppliers*</strong> that were performing the illegal and ethically-reproachable act of hiring minors.
	Apple didn&apos;t even know that it was happening at the time, and when they found out, it wasn&apos;t really their problem.
	Hiring child laborers likely lowered costs for these suppliers, which lowered costs for Apple and allowed Apple to perform their primary ethical duty: making as much money for their shareholders as they could.
	In fact, Apple&apos;s audits of these factories could be considered unethical.
	The audits cost money that could otherwise be used toward something that would make more money for shareholders, or the saved money could have been directly used as income for shareholders.
	Not only did these audits cost Apple money, they also exposed a problem that Apple then could no longer claim ignorance of.
	If a successful business is necessarily beneficial to society, Apple&apos;s success through the unintentional employment of minors is therefor beneficial to society.
	Besides, these minors likely don&apos;t have the best of living conditions.
	They might need the meager amount of money that these factory jobs provide just to afford food.
</p>
<h2>Enforcing workforce age laws</h2>
<p>
	It can also be argued that Apple&apos;s decision to enforce the workforce age law was the right thing to do.
	As a buyer, we have the power to vote with our money by buying products from companies that we support.
	Voting with my money, among other reasons, is why I don&apos;t buy iPhones.
	Think about it though: if we are voting with our money, how much <strong>*more*</strong> vote does Apple have?
	Apple has an ethical duty to the community to see to it that workforce age restrictions are obeyed.
	Working conditions in these factories are often not very good, and many would argue that these dangerous factories are no place for a child.
	Apple buys millions of dollars worth of parts from these suppliers, so it&apos;s their duty to make sure that either the suppliers are following the law or choose new suppliers that <strong>*will*</strong> follow the law.
	Apple also has a responsibility to its shareholders.
	Apple may not be directly employing these minors, but they <strong>*are*</strong> causing them to be employed by creating a demand for the parts that the companies employing them produce.
	What&apos;s going to happen when customers find out that Apple is knowingly causing the employment of minors?
	As I said, we vote with our money.
	Many customers are likely to have a big problem with the employment of minors, so they&apos;ll quit buying iPhones and buy some other smartphone instead.
	Apple doesn&apos;t have a monopoly (or even a majority share) in the smartphone market.
	A large number of Android manufactures offer devices that can take an iPhone&apos;s place.
	By not responding to this issue before it causes problems would be unethical on Apple&apos;s part, as unmitigated, it will likely cause sales to drop and stock prices to plummet.
	Both the general public and Apple&apos;s shareholders are likely to want this problem exposed and dealt with in a timely manner.
</p>
<h2>Laws versus ethics</h2>
<p>
	The difference for Apple between making decisions based on ethics and making decisions based on law is mainly the complexity.
</p>
<p>
	By law, Apple had no obligations one way or the other.
	As Apple wasn&apos;t directly employing minors, Apple was completely in the clear.
	Apple wouldn&apos;t be in any more legal trouble for buying parts from suppliers that employ minors than you would for buying an iPhone that contained the parts made by minors.
	If making decisions based on law, Apple would likely not take any action in enforcing the workforce age laws.
</p>
<p>
	However, if making decisions based on ethics, Apple has several opposing viewpoints to consider.
	What are the ethical benefits in letting the laws slide?
	What benefits are achieved by attempting to enforce the laws?
	What do the stakeholders (including shareholders, customers, employees, and the general public) have to say?
	In this case, the decision could be made in either direction.
	In Apple&apos;s case, they decided that enforcing the laws was the correct action.
</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>
	Regardless of your ethical position on the matter of Apple enforcing the workforce age laws, it&apos;s always possible to argue the opposite.
	The goal then, should be to build up the best argument that you can in favor of your side, while making sure to take into consideration any pertinent facts.
	You should also hear out those with differing views.
	Perhaps they make valid points that you should consider.
	Likewise, perhaps you still think that they&apos;re wrong, but you have something else to take into account when constructing your own arguments.
</p>
<div class="APA_references">
	<h2>References:</h2>
	<p>
		Brusseau, J. (n.d.). Is Business Ethics Necessary? Retrieved from
		<a href="http://2012books.lardbucket.org./books/business-ethics/s05-03-is-business-ethics-necessary.html"><code>http://2012books.lardbucket.org./books/business-ethics/s05-03-is-business-ethics-necessary.html</code></a>
	</p>
	<p>
		Brusseau, J. (n.d.). Case Studies. Retrieved from
		<a href="http://2012books.lardbucket.org./books/business-ethics/s05-06-case-studies.html"><code>http://2012books.lardbucket.org./books/business-ethics/s05-06-case-studies.html</code></a>
	</p>
	<p>
		Seawell, B., &amp; O&apos;Toole, J. (n.d.). Corporate social responsibility - Business Fundamentals - OpenStax CNX. Retrieved from
		<a href="https://cnx.org/contents/1ttgPM0x@4.3:f1Lp5IAy@4/Corporate-social-responsibilit"><code>https://cnx.org/contents/1ttgPM0x@4.3:f1Lp5IAy@4/Corporate-social-responsibilit</code></a>
	</p>
	<p>
		Seawell, B., &amp; O&apos;Toole, J. (n.d.). What is ethics - Business Fundamentals - OpenStax CNX. Retrieved from
		<a href="https://cnx.org/contents/1ttgPM0x@4.3:IB8YxzV4@4/What-is-ethics"><code>https://cnx.org/contents/1ttgPM0x@4.3:IB8YxzV4@4/What-is-ethics</code></a>
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